The legal aspects of volunteering during the war were discussed during a roundtable initiated by the Donbas Regional Council for Justice Reform (RRJR) and the EU Project “Pravo-Justice”.
The participants included representatives of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General’s Office, judges, lawyers, private enforcement officers, volunteers and experts from the EU Pravo-Justice Project.
The purpose of the event was to discuss and outline problematic aspects and gaps in the legal regulation of volunteer activities in Ukraine, and to develop recommendations for their elimination.
“The issues of legal regulation of volunteer activities are very acute now, because military volunteering is not a new phenomenon, but one that has gained incredible proportions only now. At the same time, it does not have a full-fledged, relevant and adequate legislative regulation,” said Olena Fonova, judge of the Economic Court of Luhansk Oblast, coordinator of the Donbas RRRP, PhD in Law.
Many aspects of volunteerism require the attention of legislators, in particular:
Tax risks of volunteering
On November 16 this year, the Verkhovna Rada passed two laws, No. 2747 and No. 2757, which were intended to exempt volunteers from taxation of money received for the needs of the Armed Forces.
Thus, the provision requiring the submission of a bank certificate with the relevant information on the details of bank accounts intended for charitable activities was abolished, and the possibility of submitting documents for registration as a volunteer in both written and electronic form was introduced. Volunteers can now register online through Diia.
Law No. 2747 applies tax exemptions to charitable assistance received by individual donors who are included in the Register of volunteers of the anti-terrorist operation and/or measures to ensure national security and defense, repulse and deter the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, in the period from February 24, 2022 to the date of their inclusion in the said Register.
However, given that these laws came into force on 11.12.2022, and these provisions will apply to volunteers who are included in the Volunteer Register before January 1, 2023, volunteers have until December 30, 2022 to register. In other words, the state actually gave volunteers only 20 days to implement this tax amnesty.
Many speakers agreed on the need for a full tax amnesty for volunteers for 2022 without registers and reporting. Otherwise, many volunteers will find themselves in a situation where they will have to pay the lion’s share of the money collected on the card to the state. These include income tax, military duty, etc. Will the state benefit from this?
Humanitarian aid
The concept of humanitarian aid and criminal liability for its sale should be defined in legislation. We need a clear definition of the moment when cargo transported from abroad becomes humanitarian.
Crossing the border by male volunteers
The problem is that it takes more than 20 days for real volunteers to be included in the Shlyakh information system, and often humanitarian cargo or cargo for the Armed Forces that is abroad is already sold or becomes irrelevant a month after the request. At the same time, telegram channels are full of offers to go abroad as volunteers and be included in the Shlyakh system in 4-5 days. Therefore, to streamline and ensure the proper functioning of such a mechanism for traveling abroad, it is necessary to shorten the timeframe for entering information into the Shlyakh system and make the entire mechanism for making decisions about traveling outside Ukraine by male volunteers more transparent.
The discussion was professional, sincere, and a bit emotional, because volunteers are not dry statistics and numbers, but people, their hard work, dedication, and unprecedented assistance to the state and our Armed Forces.
Based on the results of the roundtable, relevant recommendations for the volunteer community and proposals for improving the regulatory framework for various aspects of volunteering will be prepared and published.
